1Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 2saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
The wise men who came from the east stated as fact that the King of the Jews had been born. They had no question about that. The only thing they asked was, “Where is he?” They knew about his birth because of a star which they had seen while they were in the east and had recognized as “his star.” But how did they make this connection between a star and the birth of a king of the Jews?
During the time of Moses, a prophet named Balaam spoke these words in the hearing of the Moabite king Balak:
“I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city” (Numbers 24:17-19).
These are words that would be remembered in Moab and to the east of Israel; a conqueror who was to have dominion would rise out of Israel. In the sentence structure of these words, the “Star” and the “Sceptre” are presented as parallel in significance.
Also, when Daniel was in Babylon, he interpreted a dream of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the God of heaven would “set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (Daniel 2:44). Nebuchadnezzar had first asked the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans of Babylon to interpret his dream, but they could not (Daniel 2:2, 10-11). Surely Daniel’s interpretation was known and long remembered among the counselors of the king in Babylon.
It is interesting to note that Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, a Roman historian who lived c. AD 69-122, stated in The Life of Vespasian (4.5), “There had spread over all the Orient an old and established belief, that it was fated at that time for men coming from Judaea to rule the world.” A similar statement is found in the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus (c. AD 56-120) in The Histories (V.13.44).
3When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. 5And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, 6And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
Herod understood that the title “King of the Jews” belonged to the awaited Messiah of Israel. So he asked his question in that way; he asked the chief priests and scribes where Christ should be born. The chief priests and scribes knew that the awaited Messiah of Israel would be born in Bethlehem. The name “Bethlehem” means “house of” (beth) “bread” (lehem). Bethlehem is an appropriate name for the birthplace of the One who is the Bread of Life (John 6:35). Yet Bethlehem was itself a small town. Micah 5:2 says that though Bethlehem seemed too little to have place among the communities of Judah, one would come out of Bethlehem who would have place as Ruler in Israel.
Matthew’s reference to Micah 5:2 is a paraphrase, emphasizing the conclusion to be drawn from Micah’s prophecy: Bethlehem was not the least because a Ruler and a Shepherd for the whole nation would come from there.
Herod “gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together.” They all had opportunity to hear the talk concerning the wise men and the star they’d seen. They all knew the prophecy of Balaam concerning a Star that would come out of Jacob (see note under verses 1-2 above). They all knew the answer to Herod’s question about where Christ would be born. Yet there is no record of any one of them traveling the distance of about 5½ miles to Bethlehem to see if the prophecies they knew had been fulfilled. In contrast, the wise men, who probably were not Jewish, had traveled for a long distance in the hope of having opportunity to show respect for and give honor to the one they believed would have dominion in the future. God said to Israel (and to us), “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
7Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. 8And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
Herod called the wise men and “enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.” Herod’s actions show that he believed that the star which the wise men had seen really was a supernatural sign that the prophecies concerning the birth of Christ had been fulfilled. Yet that belief did not make Herod right with God. Herod’s belief was a kind that prompted him to plot to kill Christ. The chief priests and scribes of Jerusalem believed that Christ would come and that He would be born at Bethlehem. But their actions show that they weren’t really expecting it to happen and that even if it did, it wouldn’t matter much to them, anyway. Their belief did not make them right with God either. But the apostle John said, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (1. John 5:1) and Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:5). The “belief” of Herod and of the Jewish religious leaders was not the kind of belief that John meant. True belief includes a right recognition of Who God is and who we are not. If the human baby born in Bethlehem is God’s anointed Prophet, Priest, and King (the Christ), then we have no right to challenge His authority. We are bound by the truth of Who He is to seek and to submit to Him. If Jesus is the Son of God, then He is worthy of our worship. Being knowledgeable in Christian theology does not itself make anyone right with God.
9When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. 10When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
How can a star move? And how can a star be low enough in the sky to stand over a specific earthly location? In the Bible angels are sometimes called “stars” (see Judges 5:20; Job 38:7; Revelation 1:20; 8:10-11; 9:1; 12:4). It is likely that the star which guided the wise men was an angel. Clearly, the event was supernatural. The wise men “rejoiced with exceeding great joy” when they saw the star.
11And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
This event is truly amazing. A group of learned men who’d traveled from somewhere in the east came to what was probably a very poor home in an otherwise insignificant town in Israel and bowed down to a little child they’d never seen before. And they brought and presented expensive gifts to this child. Why did they do it? Was it some kind of a foreign diplomacy move, hoping that when the child grew up and became king he would remember them and their land(s) favorably? Not likely with a child so young in a small village home setting with no royal staff taking notes. These men understood that they’d been supernaturally led to this child. They probably made connection with the prophecy of Balaam and the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. Their coming showed a reverence for the God of Israel and His Word.
What was the bigger picture? Why did God lead them there? The prophet Isaiah said,
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. and his glory shall be seen upon thee….. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD. (Isaiah 60:1-3,6)
The ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of blessing for Israel is yet future. It will be fulfilled at Jesus’s second coming. But the journey of the wise men from the east and the gifts that they brought were a foretaste of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words. God brought the Gentile wise men with gifts for His King. God showed through this event that the future fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy would be in the child born in Bethlehem.
Gold is a gift for a king. Frankincense is a gift for a priest (an ingredient in Exodus 30:7-8,34; see also Leviticus 2:1-2,15-16; 24:7). The child born in Bethlehem was to be the King-Priest “after the order of Melchizedek” who is promised in Psalm 110. But why did the wise men bring Jesus myrrh? John 19:39-40 says concerning Jesus’ burial after His crucifixion, And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. The fulfillment of the office and work of the King-Priest born in Bethlehem would require His death.
12And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
Even at the time of Jesus’ infancy and young childhood, word of His birth was carried to the east by the wise men.
13And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: 15and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
Herod wanted to destroy the child whom the wise men called “King of the Jews.” In his efforts to kill Jesus, Herod was directly used as the tool of Satan (see Revelation 12:3-4). But God intervened to protect His Son. Joseph immediately obeyed the warning given by the angel in his dream and left before daylight to take the child and his mother to Egypt. The expression “the young child and his mother” appears four times in Matthew 2 (verses 13,14,20,21) in the context of Joseph’s care of them. Matthew never speaks of Joseph’s care for “his wife and son.” Jesus was not begotten by Joseph.
Matthew states that Jesus’ sojourn in Egypt was the fulfillment of God’s word spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt have I called my son.” This word is found in Hosea 11:1: “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” The “son” spoken of in Hosea was the people of Israel. God had also called Israel His son in a word that He gave to Moses: “And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: and I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn” (Exodus 4:22-23). God called Israel His firstborn son because Israel would be the highest in rank among the nations and because God would bring His Son Jesus into the world through Israel.
Jesus’ Sonship is different from Israel’s sonship. Israel spoke of God as “our Father” (Isaiah 63:16; 64:8). But the Jews were incensed when Jesus spoke of God as “My Father.” They understood that Jesus was claiming that God was His own Father, making himself equal with God (John 5:17-18).
Jesus was taken to Egypt as a young child and then re-entered the promised land, just as the people of Israel had done in the past. Jesus was the representative Israelite who, unlike the other people of Israel, obeyed God perfectly. He alone is worthy to receive the inheritance promised to Abraham and to possess the throne promised to David.
This truth is also plain in Isaiah 49:1-9. The servant spoken of in verse 3 of that passage is Israel: “Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” But the servant spoken of in verses 5-9 is Christ: “It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” Jesus was the representative Israelite who perfectly obeyed God. God’s plan and promises will be fulfilled through Him.
16Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 18in Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
The quote in these verses is from Jeremiah 31:15. The town of Rama (Ramah) is again mentioned in Jeremiah 40:1: The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon. According to this verse, it seems that Ramah was the place to which the captives of Jerusalem and Judah were brought before they were taken away to Babylon. Jeremiah was released in Ramah. In the verse quoted by Matthew, Rachel metaphorically represents the mother of Israel. Ramah is in the land belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, and Rachel was the mother of Benjamin. Rachel is pictured as weeping in Ramah as she watches her children being carried away as captives to Babylon. But Jeremiah 31 is a chapter full of hope. In fact, the verse after the one quoted by Matthew says, Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy (Jeremiah 31:16). Later in this chapter the New Covenant is promised (31:31-40).
Herod ordered that all the children (probably the male children) two years old or younger who lived in or around the village of Bethlehem be killed. This murderous brutality was yet another part of the suffering of Israel at the hand of oppressors of the nation. Once again, Rachel wept for her children who were gone. But the hope in Jeremiah 31 of restoration for Israel and for the inauguration of the New Covenant was about to be realized in the child that Herod sought to kill.
19But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life. 21And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: 23and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.
Herod’s life ended. People like Herod may seek to destroy the Lord Jesus and to prevent the realization of God’s plans, but their lives end and God’s plans go on. God led Joseph to return to the land of Israel. Joseph obeyed. God guided Joseph in steps: first to return to Israel, then to bypass the region of Judah and go on north to Galilee. Surely God today leads us in steps, too. Joseph brought the child Jesus and His mother Mary to live in a town called Nazareth.
Both Joseph and Mary had probably lived in Nazareth in their past. She was in Nazareth when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would give birth to a son and that she should name Him Jesus (Luke 1:26-38). Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem at the time of the taxation (Luke 2:4). The statement that Jesus would be called a Nazarene is not a quote. Different from the other references in Matthew to prophecies, verse 23 says “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets.” This prophecy is one which is found in a general sense in the prophets (plural). Probably the most specific illustration of the meaning of this prophecy is found in Nathanel’s response to Philip when Philip said, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathaniel’s immediate reaction was, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:45-46). Nazareth had a bad reputation. To be from Nazareth was to be looked down on. Jesus’s being called a Nazarene emblematized the words of the prophets that He would not be treated with esteem (see Psalm 22:6-8; 118:22; Isaiah 53:3; Daniel 9:26; Zechariah 9:9; 11:12-13; Acts 7:35-37).
Note: All Scriptures are quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.